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Hey Maarten! True, I had bigger ambitions for this - in retrospect, I think I should have talked to spa owners, golf course owners etc. to see if they would bu

by toumhi 15y ago

Hey Maarten! True, I had bigger ambitions for this - in retrospect, I think I should have talked to spa owners, golf course owners etc. to see if they would buy it (what everybody says about customer development) I think it's a bit hard for non-native english speakers living far away from the US to do this - in general, I think doing customer development for a different market that you don't especially know or have easy access to is tough (or maybe I'm just rationalizing to avoid being uncomfortable) What I'm thinking at the moment is addressing a market I feel connected to: for example developers, entrepreneurs, bloggers but then, there's lots of competition :-)

ma2rten 15y ago
It's ironic how "what everyone says" is often still the right advice. Maybe this is one of the things you need to learn from experience, no matter how smart you are and how many blogs of smart people you read. I am thinking maybe the reason that there is so much more competition in these markets you listed, for a big part is that they are much more addressable. We "technology people" almost have a reflex "I have a problem, I am going to google the solution.". That reflex might be much less developed with spa owners and other small business owners. They might be more inclined to ask a fellow business owner, how they handle problem instead. Maybe you would need to run ads in spa-owner-magazines (I don't know if that exists) to reach them or something like that. EDIT: I don't know if you agree, but maybe another lesson is: just because a market is big (US), that does not mean it's the best business opportunity. Maybe you should have started this in France first and then scaled to other countries when and if you had a working business model. [I am just thinking out loud, I think if I would have worked on the same idea, it would have turned out much worse.]
- HeyLaughingBoy 15y ago
  ads in spa-owner-magazines (I don't know if that exists) This may seem like a trival remark, but I'm making it because many people don't know: magazines exist for everything. No matter how small a niche seems, I have always been able to find a magazine or trade journal, either online or offline, that addresses it. Spa Management Journal: http://www.spamanagement.com/ http://www.spamanagement.com/ One of the first places you should look when trying to understand how to reach a new set of potential business customers is a trade journal search.
  - smackfu 15y ago
    Yeah, these magazines exist mainly so that people can place highly specialized ads in them.
benmccann 15y ago
> I think doing customer development for a different market that you don't especially know or have easy access to is tough That's exactly the point. It's hard to serve a market you don't know, so get to know it! Thanks for sharing your experience =)

by toumhi 15y ago

ma2rten 15y ago

It's ironic how "what everyone says" is often still the right advice. Maybe this is one of the things you need to learn from experience, no matter how smart you are and how many blogs of smart people you read. I am thinking maybe the reason that there is so much more competition in these markets you listed, for a big part is that they are much more addressable. We "technology people" almost have a reflex "I have a problem, I am going to google the solution.". That reflex might be much less developed with spa owners and other small business owners. They might be more inclined to ask a fellow business owner, how they handle problem instead. Maybe you would need to run ads in spa-owner-magazines (I don't know if that exists) to reach them or something like that. EDIT: I don't know if you agree, but maybe another lesson is: just because a market is big (US), that does not mean it's the best business opportunity. Maybe you should have started this in France first and then scaled to other countries when and if you had a working business model. [I am just thinking out loud, I think if I would have worked on the same idea, it would have turned out much worse.]

HeyLaughingBoy 15y ago
ads in spa-owner-magazines (I don't know if that exists) This may seem like a trival remark, but I'm making it because many people don't know: magazines exist for everything. No matter how small a niche seems, I have always been able to find a magazine or trade journal, either online or offline, that addresses it. Spa Management Journal: http://www.spamanagement.com/ http://www.spamanagement.com/ One of the first places you should look when trying to understand how to reach a new set of potential business customers is a trade journal search.
- smackfu 15y ago
  Yeah, these magazines exist mainly so that people can place highly specialized ads in them.

benmccann 15y ago

> I think doing customer development for a different market that you don't especially know or have easy access to is tough That's exactly the point. It's hard to serve a market you don't know, so get to know it! Thanks for sharing your experience =)